It's time to go on the record .... (OT drivel from our Kanigit friends)

[puc86]

24 minutes ago, Meeps said:

That is just one piece of the puzzle. It was a culmination of everything. Citrus Sports basically thought little to nothing of UCF despite us being a tenant "There was a take-UCF-for-granted attitude" John Hitt. George O'Leary hated playing at the Citrus Bowl because A. It had too many seats to support a CUSA team B. It was a dump and C. "Every game was like an away game". I admit, we were fortunate that we had a huge booster that did his own research and found a solution to get a stadium we could afford (pre-engineered stadium). But the main thing is, we knew an OCS no matter how "cheap" would reap many benefits. George O'Leary was a huge proponent that an OCS was needed, just like Charlie Strong has voiced the same. Look at how the program exploded since opening in 2007. 

In fact, there are so many parallels between us building a stadium and the situation you guys are in right now. The Glazer's don't think anything of usf, the stadium is way too big for your fan base in the AAC, it's not an on campus so technically it's an away game and there is little to no financial advantage playing there. The difference is, we found a way to build the stadium and several renovations have been done to it since to maximize revenue with Loge seating, Cabana Club with premum food/alcohol, and field level suites that go for 25k per suite. So much so that, "UCF makes a ton of money on its home games — between $3 and $4 million and rising as the Knights continue to find creative ways to add premium seating to Spectrum Stadium — while USF doesn’t make much money at all on a typical home game."

Michael Kelly would rather stand pat: "Its feasible (now) if we're willing to settle for a lesser product," said new USF Athletic Director Michael Kelly upon reviewing the report. "But the feedback says if we're going to do it, we do it right...go big or go home.

Instead, the study suggested the Bulls remain at Raymond James Stadium until they had additional revenues to fund a state-of-the-art, 35,000-seat stadium with multiple premium-seating options, akin to Colorado State's $240 million football stadium"

You guys are at a crossroad, instead of seeing us as the model to follow by building a stadium you can afford - which will help cultivate team pride,  build a fan base, and in time, create revenue; you guys "want" (do nothing) a lavish Colorado State with only 35,000 seats. This is akin to sitting back and holding your hand out, except this time - there aren't anymore silver spoons. 

You all laugh at our "erector stadium" while you barely break even at Ray Jay - meanwhile, we are laughing all the way to the bank. You are going to see all these away games vs P5 that all scheduled 2:1 is eventually going to catch up to your athletic budget and that's going to cost you guys any coaches worth their salt since you won't be able to afford to keep them. It's not a sustainable model. Even if you over inflate the ticket prices for games like UF and Bama coming to Ray Jay, UCF's cheaper stadium is sling shotting us past by GENERATING 20+ million each year. As time goes by, the gap is just going to get wider and wider.

 

 

 

https://admfin.ucf.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/FY18-Financial-Statements-Stadium-Corp.pdf

[Triple B]

12 hours ago, Meeps said:

In fact, there are so many parallels between us building a stadium and the situation you guys are in right now.

There are only two real parallels in the situations, we both played in off campus stadiums and in lower level conferences. There are a multitude of differences in the situations that doesn't make an ocs as effective here as it apparently was there. Your ocs looks to have been exactly what y'all needed, combined with, and maybe even more important, a 3 time COY head coach falling into your lap ....... I, and Mike Kelly, both wish a cheap ass stadium would be the cure-all here that it may have been over there but it's not ...................... but thank you for your concern about the future of our program, though.

[puc86]

Everyone has to enjoy being chastened on our board about how to be selected for a conference by people that have followed behind our wake since the birth of our program. Exactly how many times has UCF been selected for a conference ahead of us? I’m sure they finally found the secret sauce and just because they haven’t been selected as yet, this time they have it all figured out. We should now follow their lead even though we have gotten it right twice to their none and all evidence points to the fact we have done a better job of getting into better conferences than they have. Too bad they didn’t get their own message board to go with their POS so they wouldn’t have to come hangout here.

[Mission9]

13 hours ago, Triple B said:

There are only two real parallels in the situations, we both played in off campus stadiums and in lower level conferences. There are a multitude of differences in the situations that doesn't make an ocs as effective here as it apparently was there. Your ocs looks to have been exactly what y'all needed, combined with, and maybe even more important, a 3 time COY head coach falling into your lap ....... I, and Mike Kelly, both wish a cheap ass stadium would be the cure-all here that it may have been over there but it's not ...................... but thank you for your concern about the future of our program, though.

They have always seemed more obsessed over this issue than most of our fans.  I think Puc summed it up when he stated that if owning a stadium was so great, why do the professional teams avoid it?  Also, as best as I can recall, most USF fans understood why UCF had to build that particular style of stadium and only starting pointing out its inadequacies when the UCF fans started carrying on about USF playing in a "rented stadium".  

I do find it curious that they all seem to be staunch advocates of USF building a stadium.  I am of the idea that when an enemy, which hates me like poison, tells me what to do I ignore the unwanted advice or do the opposite. 

[Triple B]

1 hour ago, Mission9 said:

I do find it curious that they all seem to be staunch advocates of USF building a stadium.  I am of the idea that when an enemy, which hates me like poison, tells me what to do I ignore the unwanted advice or do the opposite.

One reason may be that RayJay may be more an asset than a hindrance if/when a P5 starts looking around again. Smartest thing we did in our Big 12 presentation was including that pic of the 2007 WVU game, epitomizing the support, attendance-wise, we had while at the big boy's table. Have us hosting a ccg but take RayJay out of the picture and put us into a erector set style ocs, you're not having the same type atmosphere as that 2007 game or the atmosphere they have in Oveido hosting those games ..... we are in a different situation.

[Mission9]

28 minutes ago, Triple B said:

One reason may be that RayJay may be more an asset than a hindrance if/when a P5 starts looking around again. Smartest thing we did in our Big 12 presentation was including that pic of the 2007 WVU game, epitomizing the support, attendance-wise, we had while at the big boy's table. Have us hosting a ccg but take RayJay out of the picture and put us into a erector set style ocs, you're not having the same type atmosphere as that 2007 game or the atmosphere they have in Oveido hosting those games ..... we are in a different situation.

Thank you for the comments above. I agree with you about the stadium. While it is disappointing, the USF fans we have lost are not going to magically  return just because of a new stadium (maybe the grand opening). Also  , UCF fans (as well as ECU fans) tend to make snide comments or outright laugh at me and say that I am lying when I state that USF had decent attendance during the Big East era. Both seem to be part of historical negationism if you ask me.  Seems to me that they want to deny the fact that USF can and would fill Raymond James if somehow invited to join the Pee 5.

Given that our AD was part of the playoff selection team, I trust his judgement to know what to do to make our school look more attractive.

Edited July 19, 2019 by Mission9
Additional point

[puc86]

Ucf fan’s OCS maybe a dream pilgrimage for their fanbase but I don’t think there are too many people in the nation pining to step foot on their campus. They seem pretty confident that a conference is going to have a huge ***** for the idea that if everything goes right they can have 45,000 people praying to their respective g-ds that this isn’t the day the deck of cards they tossed together doesn’t finally collapse, however I’m pretty well convinced that more conferences would be interested in a proven entity that can draw 68,000 fans in a pretty nice environment. Could I be wrong and they be right? I suppose even a blind squirrel finds a nut occasionally but so far the score for getting into a better conference is 2-0 USF. I’ve heard a few people say their stadium is a notch up over us for expansion, all of them have been UCF fans on this board. Until the day UCF actually gets selected for anything over us I will remain apprehensive of their knowledge of what conferences are looking for in expansion. Now if I wanted to know what conferences do not want they appear to be experts.

Edited July 19, 2019 by puc86

[Triple B]

1 hour ago, Mission9 said:

Seems to me that they want to deny the fact that USF can and would fill Raymond James if somehow invited to join the Pee 5.

Now I don't feel we would magically start filling up Ray Jay if we got to P5 but the attendance would definitely improve immensely, IMO, and the chance for WVU 2007 to repeat, possibly regularly, would be a lot higher than it is now ......... and now is as close to nil as you can get.

[Meeps]

Like I said previously, we honestly don't care what you all do one way or another. You including a picture of a WVU game almost a decade prior in your presentation shows the B12 what exactly? That you can only fill a stadium in the past playing in your eyes a big time program? That doesn't bode well for the present.

You're 2-0 for conference expansion? What exactly do you think your athletic department did that warranted an invite? From what I can see, you had an astute AD who made good decisions but you certainly didn't have a body of work that earned it. Just like Rutgers, you were gifted into the club. 

If you think we all suggest that an OCS is something you shouldn't do, cool. I've experienced time and time again the atmosphere of our "erector set" stadium and it blows the doors off Ray Jay. Why? Because it's ours, B. The aluminium reflects sound and makes it sound twice as loud as a concrete stadium thus enhancing the noise factor and home field advantage and lastly, we are both in the AAC for the foreseeable future. 45,000 is a good number of seats for this league and we can max it. Ray Jay on the other hand never comes remotely filled, it's not yours, the sound is nothing like it is at Spectrum. I recommend making the trip to Orlando come black Friday and experience what the atmosphere is like first hand. It will be sold out again and we will show you just what you're all missing without an OCS.

[Mission9]

1 hour ago, Triple B said:

Now I don't feel we would magically start filling up Ray Jay if we got to P5 but the attendance would definitely improve immensely, IMO, and the chance for WVU 2007 to repeat, possibly regularly, would be a lot higher than it is now ......... and now is as close to nil as you can get.

Too true.  I should have specified 50K plus for most games and over 60K for the big games (which does include UCF) provided the team was having a respectable season.